There is a solid and growing subculture devoted to the fiber arts in general, and spinning in particular. Spinning loose fiber into yarn is an art with roots lost in antiquity. Modern practitioners use millennia-old techniques for twisting agglomerations of loose fibers, such as wool from sheep, into yarn. One very common tool for spinning fiber into yarn is the drop spindle, a simple device for manually spinning twisted fibers directly onto a spindle using gravity and rotation. Another more mechanically complex device is the spinning wheel. The spinning wheel is a tool for twisting fibers or threads together into a continuous length of yarn. Spinning wheels are typically used by one individual at a time, and are also typically powered by that individual user.
Spinning wheels produce yarn by twisting fibers together. Fibers, such as combed wool, are fed through an orifice onto a rotating bobbin. The rotation of the bobbin twists the approaching fibers together into yarn, and the yarn is collected on the rotating bobbin. The bobbin is turned by a pulley attached thereto, which is turned by the rotation of a second pulley or wheel coupled to the first pulley by an endless belt. A pair of parallel arms, each arm having a row of spaced pins extending therefrom, extend around the spindle and act to guide the yarn onto the bobbin.
Yarn can be produced in a variety of gauges or widths, ranging from skinny, thread-like yarn to thick, cable-like yarn. However, the thickness of the yarn is determined by the number of twists per unit length, which is in turn determined by the spinning wheel's drive ratio, defined by the relative diameters of the two pulleys and the distance between them. The drive ratio is a fixed property of a given spinning wheel, such that wheels designed to produce thin or skinny yarns cannot be used to produce thick or fat yarns, and vice versa.
Thus, there remains a need for an improved spinning wheel that may be used to produce thin yarn, thick yarn, and yarns in between. The present invention addresses this need.